A truncated afternoon session today filled with line rushes and a brief 4-on-4 scrimmage. The activity was more interesting and more instructive, but at 45 minutes or so, not enough to really watch everyone in question. Some items of interest:

- John Armstrong appeared in the first half of practice wearing a white jersey (the only one on the ice). He left when the drills got more physical. At the start of the week, I predicted to Walk Invisible that Armstrong would be injured before the camp was done. Looks like I was right. Other injured guys right now include John Negrin and Ryley Grantham.

- Mikael Backlund was schooling the kids today. He made several highlight reel dangles around opponents. There's little question he's at the top of the class here.

- Nyren's fundamental skills are questionable, but he made two excellent defensive reads. I've come around a bit on the guy since watching him struggle through the power skating stuff.

- The only time I really noticed Nemisz was on a defensive play. He was the lone man back during a rush in the scrimmage and managed to expertly guide the attacker to the outside without much problem.

- Tim Erixon has good tools aside from his shot. No real velocity or power behind it.

- Bryan Cameron has left me really underwhelmed throughout camp thus far. His skating isn't there and he hasn't been executing around the net the way one would expect of a guy with so many junior goals under his belt.

John Armstrong had surgery and was not going to push it this development camp, the flames want him 100% for pro camp in september. He did not get injured this week its precaution- John Armstrong stated on fan960

John Armstrong had surgery and was not going to push it this development camp, the flames want him 100% for pro camp in september. He did not get injured this week its precaution- John Armstrong stated on fan960

I do agree with your assesment with Cameron and Nemisz

Ahh, thanks for the info. He was fully engaged in the other skates I saw, so naturally assumed he hurt something.

Erixon said it was only his fifth time on the ice this year. Its been three days these kids are just starting to find their hands and legs. I'm sure you will notice an improvement when camp starts in September.

There's no real way to rank these guys through these sorts of drills. You get some sort of idea what their individual skill sets are, but things change when it comes to game time - making decisions and executing under pressure are so valuable, it's mostly the thing that separates good from bad.

I like the skill sets of the guys I've mentioned throughout the week. It remains to be seen how that translates to performance though.